How can I extract the contents of a RAR-file using MATLAB 7.9 (R2009b)?

I would like to extract the contents of a RAR archives using MATLAB commands. There are an UNZIP and UNTAR functions, but no UNRAR function.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

RAR is a proprietary archive file format. As a consequence there is no ready-made function in MATLAB to extract files from a RAR file. However, if you have or are able to find a third party tool which can be called from the command line (i.e. the DOS command window or UNIX shell) you could use the SYSTEM command or the "!" operator to call that third party tool in a MATLAB script or function.

[Royi Avital]

I think the decompressor of RAR files is freely distributed.